World News - S.F. police to suspend up to 20 cops over videos Tapes included racist, sexist and homophobic stereotypes, officials say

A police officer accused of making videos with sexist, racist and homophobic content defended the work Thursday as satirical, and blasted the police chief for criticizing it.“It was just made for us, so shame on her,” Officer Andrew Cohen said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”Mayor Gavin Newsom and Police Chief Heather Fong said Wednesday that up to 20 officers participated in creating or performing in the videos. Cohen was suspended, and the others face discipline. The video included a skit of a white police officer in a patrol car running over a black homeless woman and a male cross-dresser flirting with a male officer.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com

The British government can't use evidence against terror suspects that may have been obtained by torture, the country's highest court ruled. The House of Lords today backed a challenge brought by a group of former detainees to a ruling that allowed authorities to use evidence against them that may have been extracted by torture outside Britain, as long as the U.K. government wasn't involved. ``The law will not lend its support to the use of torture for any purpose whatever,'' Lord James Hope wrote in the unanimous ruling by seven Law Lords. ``It has no place in the defense of freedom and democracy, whose very existence depends on the denial of the use of such methods to the executive.'' ...http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=apLaHKPL4NpY&refer=home

General Ante Gotovina was indicted by the Hague tribunal in 2001 for alleged crimes committed by Croatian forces during Operation Storm - the offensive that, in effect, put an end to the rebel Serbs' self-proclaimed republic of Krajina within Croatia. At the time of the alleged offences - just weeks before his 40th birthday - Gen Gotovina was in charge of the southern area of the Krajina region. His rise through the ranks of the newly-formed Croatian army had been meteoric. A former French Foreign Legionnaire with the rank of a chief corporal, he had returned to Croatia at the start of the war in 1991. By the time of Operation Storm, when he moved his headquarters to the rebel Serbs' captured capital, Knin, he was one of his country's most prominent military commanders...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4510542.stm

Following are security incidents reported in Iraq as of 1300 GMT on Wednesday, Dec. 7.U.S. and Iraqi forces are battling a Sunni Arab-led insurgency against the Shi'ite and Kurdish-led government in Baghdad.* Indicates new or updated incident* FALLUJA - The bodies of three people who had been bound and shot dead were brought to the main hospital of Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, a medical source said. The victims were wearing civilian clothes and were found on the outskirts of the city.FALLUJA - A U.S. Marine was killed on Tuesday when his vehicle hit a mine during a patrol in western Iraq, the military said.BAGHDAD - Gunmen kidnapped the eight-year old son of a guard at the Saddam Hussein trial in front of his house in Baghdad, Iraqi police said.KIRKUK - Gunmen in police uniforms killed three security guards and wounded five in a main hospital in the northern city of Kirkuk, the head of hospital security said....http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LON737829.htm

When hurricane Katrina roared ashore along the Gulf Coast 100 days ago, it stirred up tons of toxic substances, much of which had been stored safely or buried benignly beneath the earth. But when floodwaters subsided or were pumped out of low-lying areas, they left behind sediment and sludge that oozed and then dried into layers of muck and dust that in some places remain hazardous. Just how hazardous may not be known for months or years. But as rebuilding begins and as officials allow residents to return to the worst-hit neighborhoods, government and independent scientists are getting a better idea of the risks — though they aren't always agreeing on the severity of the problem. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has tested sediments in more than 430 sites in the New Orleans area alone. The EPA found organic compounds, hydrocarbons, pesticides, and heavy metals, but in most cases the levels are "similar to the historical levels found in these parishes before Katrina and ...http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2005-12-07-katrina-toxic_x.htm?csp=34

Armed with camcorders, and even cell phone cameras, soldiers and Marines from the MTV and Internet generation are sending home adrenalin-packed video postcards and music videos. CBS News correspondent Vince Gonzales reports they provide front-seat views of combat unlike anything seen in any previous war. Soldiers are even attaching cameras to their helmets for a first-person view of the moments when war gets up close and personal. But many times, the enemy stays hidden. Whether it's an attack on a base in Afghanistan, a crowded Baghdad street, or a wide-open Iraqi highway. Sometimes the insurgents miss and video show soldiers cheering. Sometimes they don't, as another shows a car windshield shattering, gunfire and shouting. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/07/eveningnews/main1107217.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=World_1107217